OCEANSIDE – Six hundred yards into yesterday's Ironman 70.3 California triathlon and Matt Reed had lost his goggles, lost his swim cap and suffered an asthma attack.

“I was thinking: 'This is it. My race is over,' ” Reed admitted.

Anything else go wrong?

“I was freezing out there,” Reed said. “I was getting disoriented.”

But a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride and 13.1-mile run is long-distance racing, and one of its advantages is there's time to recover. Reed, a New Zealand native who represented the United States at the Beijing Olympics in triathlon, did just that.

The 6-foot-5 Kiwi pieced together a solid bike ride, then dusted the competition in the half marathon, winning in 3 hours, 51 minutes, 50 seconds. Defending champion Andy Potts, the reigning world champion at the distance, finished second in 3:53:36.

Australia's Mirinda Carfrae played the come-from-behind game, too, running down the leaders in the last half mile to win the women's race in 4:25:02. Colorado's Sarah Groff took second, 21 seconds back. Reed and Carfrae both earned $5,000 for their victories.

On a morning that dawned cool and breezy, 2,113 wetsuit-clad athletes dived into chilly Oceanside Harbor for the 10th anniversary of an event that began as a 140.6-mile Ironman but has been raced at 70.3 miles since 2002.

Besides their comeback styles, there was another common thread to Reed and Carfrae's wins. Both were motivated by late-season disappointment in 2008.

For Reed, 33, it was his performance at Beijing. He figured he was capable of earning a medal. Instead, he blew his taper, resting too much the final two weeks leading up to the race – “I felt really flat come race day” – and finished 32nd.

“Terribly disappointing,” he said.

For Carfrae, it was her showing at November's Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Florida.

“The worst race in my life,” she said. “We won't talk about that.”

After winning the event in 2007, Carfrae placed 12th last year.

Her problem?

Too much racing, 11 events alone by July.

“I was just a little burnt,” she said. “Definitely, lesson learned.”

Drafting on the bike is against the rules in long-distance racing, but there's nothing illegal about swimming in someone's wake, and Reed did just that after his difficult start in 59-degree water.

“I just jumped on some guy's feet,” he said. “The swim was real slow. After that, I just wanted to get out of the water.”

Then he followed his wife's advice: Get to the front. His wife, Kelly, doubles as Reed's coach.

“I just put my head down (on the bike) and was picking off one person after another,” he said. “Once I got to the front guys, I backed off and rode.”

He definitely didn't burn out his legs on the bike, taking over the lead about 2½ miles into the run and never being pushed. With about three miles to go in the run, a spotter estimated Reed's lead at three minutes and texted to a friend, “Reed has it iced.”

By his calculation, Reed was racing at the 70.3-mile distance for the first time in five years. Despite knocking off the defending world champ, he's not ready to forgo the much shorter Olympic distance (roughly 32 miles).

“I want that (Olympic) medal,” he said.

Carfrae and Groff are longtime friends and training partners. As evidenced by her nine career wins at the distance, Carfrae, 28, is one of the world's best at 70.3 miles. Groff, 27, was stepping up to the distance for the first time.

When a friend asked after the race if she won, Groff smiled and said, “So close.”

How close?

Carfrae passed Groff about 500 yards shy of the finish.

Joked Groff, “It would have been nice if the race ended with a 12.7-mile run.”

Groff, though, was hardly bummed. Her goal coming in: a top eight finish worth $500, enough to cover the $280 entry fee. Instead, she pocketed $3,000 for finishing second. It was income hard-earned, given her jelly-legged end state.

“I kind of slogged it there,” she said. “I just wanted to make sure I crossed the finish line and didn't end up a pile on the ground.”